The last time we visited SIL, it was a pleasant evening in late summer. Dinner had been delicious. The dishes were done. The little children had been put to bed and the adults were enjoying a polite discussion abount current events . The lights were dimmed and a bottle or two of inexpensive but nice wine on the table.

All of a sudden, there was an invasion. It was the bats!

We were assured that there was no danger. 'All old houses around here have bats. They're part of the entertainment'.

All old houses may have bats in the attic but do they have bats flying around the dining room?

I like bats when I see them in the wild. I'm not wild about bats when I see them inside the house. I'm certainly not pleased to see them flying around in a house where young children are sleeping.

This is why we do not visit SIL unless we stay at a hotel.

My high school had bats. And a belfry. Yes, we had bats in our belfry.

Occasionally, a bat would come down to the lower levels for a joyride, or a nap in a corner (or once, a potted plant in the school chapel).

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What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture

Actually, if you have a cat getting UTI's, it's probably a good idea to replace the litter box entirely. Use a few of the disposable biodegradable type for the recovery period and then start with a brand new box. They actually make special litter now that basically turns the litter box into a giant litmus test - it changes color when the cat's urine output deviates from the normal pH. There are multiple brands and types available.

One of my cats used to have irritable bowel syndrome - she actually got diagnosed with it by a veterinarian. It made her have diarrhea everywhere, all the time - horrifically stinky diarrhea. Everywhere she went she left a little. It was actually killing her - she dropped down to weighing less than 4 pounds. I decided to let her spend some time outside on my porch, because she really really wanted to, and I felt sad for her, and she caught a rat and ate it (I detailed that story somewhere upthread.) Her IBS completely reversed - she is now a happy 11 pound kitty without tummy troubles.

I guess she needed certain intestinal flora & fauna replaced - and I bet yogurt would not have had the correct ones for a cat......lucky kitty!

No, but they do make canine & feline probiotic packs. Ask your vet.

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What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture

I will admit, I'm laughing about it now, and I suspect the bright yellow is the result of the Mountain Dew I had this morning.

At the time, I was embarrassed. And felt bad about the toxic fumes.

Not long ago, I had a week-long tummy bug. Before I talked to a helpful nurse who told me that Gatorade needed to be diluted when you're sick (too much sugar), and that the probiotic yogurt drink wasn't the best idea (dairy being a no-no), I'd had about a quart of the latter and a bottle of the former over the course of about an hour and a half. (Both had been making me feel better in smaller doses, and I was feeling up to having more, so that's good, right?)

Wrong.

That vaguely nauseous feeling returned with a vengeance, and when DH called to check up on me, I had to hang up very suddenly and dash for the bathroom.

I kid you not, it was nuclear orange in color and tasted much the same (thanks to the orange flavor Gatorade). At least I got most of it in the toilet.

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What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture

I will admit, I'm laughing about it now, and I suspect the bright yellow is the result of the Mountain Dew I had this morning.

At the time, I was embarrassed. And felt bad about the toxic fumes.

Not long ago, I had a week-long tummy bug. Before I talked to a helpful nurse who told me that Gatorade needed to be diluted when you're sick (too much sugar), and that the probiotic yogurt drink wasn't the best idea (dairy being a no-no), I'd had about a quart of the latter and a bottle of the former over the course of about an hour and a half. (Both had been making me feel better in smaller doses, and I was feeling up to having more, so that's good, right?)

Wrong.

That vaguely nauseous feeling returned with a vengeance, and when DH called to check up on me, I had to hang up very suddenly and dash for the bathroom.

I kid you not, it was nuclear orange in color and tasted much the same (thanks to the orange flavor Gatorade). At least I got most of it in the toilet.

I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I get the stomach bug, although I detest gatorade since I had to drink a ton of it during my colonoscopy prep. BLECH. it is nasty. I'd only do it if absolutely necessary

We have had a time with roaches in our home. We had no problems with them until our recent neighbors moved in, and it is so gross! DS and DH are rather forgetful, and I found an open (almost empty) jar of honey on the counter with dead roaches in it. Yuck!

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“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

I repeat, do not eat red colored starbursts before drinking, and then as your last beer have a fruity sweet flavored beer that did not sit well in my stomach causing me to empty said stomach. You will then hear when a friend comes to check on you "what in the heck did you eat?!" combined with "are you really okay?" because the resulting color in the bowl will be a very bright crimson red.

I have a tendency to grow skin tags (face tribbles) and moles, as well as a cutaneous horn. I had scheduled two visits with my ophthalmologist/plastic surgeon to have them removed and have a follow-up before our vacation.

Today was visit 1. Dr. C removed a large mole on my chin, two dead oil glands on my forehead, a mole on my right eyebrow and the cutaneous horn on my right eyelid. Before removing them, I received a deadening injection in each place. It hurt. I said "dingdangity" to the doctor, then he told his nurse to put on my chart that I cursed at him and I would not get a lollipop or a gold star. LOL! After removing the tissue, he cauterized each spot. I have black sooty marks on my face!

I had no idea how badly it would hurt. It stings when air blows near it, if it gets wet, if I move my face.

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“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

Hugs, ladynight, even if you didn't ask. I hope it feels less stingy soon.

My poor dog ate something yesterday that clearly didn't agree with him. My SO got home from work today to find that the dog had explosive diarrhea in his kennel. I'm really thankful that I had meetings that ran late today.

Now, though, it is pouring rain, which the dog doesn't like. He's also still suffering, so has had to go out twice in thirty minutes. Since he doesn't like the rain, he shakes his fur out every 10 seconds, which hampers his ability to find the 'right' spot to poo—he clearly needs to go, but his need to shake wins as soon as he finds a spot, which confuses him and makes him start the search over. Once he does find the spot, he clearly is unhappy trying not to shake while going. The look on his face is one of those things you shouldn't laugh but I really can't help myself.

I love this thread, but haven't posted any of the several gross outs from my life. Here's one:

For my sins, my first Bull Terrier and my first American Blue Gascon Hound declared undying enmity for each other. A few years ago, I was breaking up another *@&! dogfight, alone. That's not recommended, because the chance of getting away unscathed is virtually non-existent.

I somehow allowed my left hand to get into the giant dog's mouth. I felt pressure on it, saw where it was, and moved it to his collar. Or maybe it was his ear. I'm not too clear on the details. I succeeded in getting the two dogs apart and kenneled. Then I looked at my hand.

I was looking, through a neat two-inch slice in my skin, at the tendons in the back of my hand!

Since they won't stitch dog bites due to the risk of infection, I had to pull the edges together with butterfly bandages. But thanks to antibiotics, you can hardly see the scar.

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For in the fatness of these pursy timesVirtue itself of vice must pardon beg,Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. Hamlet, Act 3, scene 4, lines 144-146 (Pursy: wheezing)

I've got one gross-out story (plus an unrelated tidbit), and a couple of pictures for the wound folks...

Gross-out: I have two cats. I was going through a lot of cat foods trying to find something that they'd both eat (my Himalayan, Rika, won't eat foods that aren't a certain shape - what a special snowflake ) and for a while, I had them on the Purina One Beyond food. They seemed to like it and it wasn't too expensive, so I figured, hey, I think I may have found something good!

Um. Nooooope.

Skip forward to one night when I'm wandering around the kitchen. I notice something in the cats' water dish and stop to look at it a little more closely. "Huh, that's weird, what got in their water? It looks like...grains of...rice...but I don't have any rice..."

*brain comes to a screeching halt*

Yep. There were maggots merrily drowning themselves in my cats' water dish, and I had quite the sinking feeling when I realized where they came from.

Events that followed, in order: empty water dish violently into kitchen sink, scrub with blisteringly hot water, refill, put back down. Open food dish (it was one of those small barrel-type dishes), discover what looks very much like dusty spiderwebs on inside of lid, empty food dish violently into trash can, scrub with blisteringly hot water, set in sink to dry. Run to attic, get half-full bag of Beyond, take a few deep breaths for courage, look in bag, discover bag is full of said dusty spiderweb stuff, run back to kitchen, throw bag violently into trash can. Tie trash bag securely with at least three knots, remove from trash can, run down the stairs, around the corner, through the four-seasons room and outside, throw bag violently into outside trash can. Proceed at much more sedate pace back upstairs, refill food dish with leftover non-buggy food from attic, replace in usual spot. Then proceed to wheeze a bit, because running with asthma is never a good idea even when you're convinced your kitchen is going to be taken over by maggots if you don't get the trash out Right This Instant.

They're now on Blue cat food, duck formula. I wonder what it says about me that I'm willing to spend $40 just to make sure there are no maggots to be found anywhere in the food.

Tidbit: Rika, again. As well as being a special snowflake, she has the worst cat farts I have EVER smelled in my lifetime. Worse than the time our late Rottweiler got into the kitchen trash can. And she likes to let them rip on my lap. Did you know it's not very pleasant to have your pants smell like cat farts?

Pictures: I've had both my ankles operated on because...well, whoever referred to it as "snap" was very, very right. I have extremely hypermobile joints, and ever since I was a kid my right ankle's been very fond of rolling under me at a 90-degree angle so I'd step right on the outside of my foot - if your leg straight up and down looks like this: | then think of it as going like this: _| and you've got the idea. Yes, this means I've probably repeatedly broken my ankle over the years! However, the last time it broke (September 2011) it decided to go out when I was on the STAIRS, which apparently resulted in a much worse break than I'd ever had before (no one could tell it was broken though - didn't show on X-rays. ). Three months on when it wasn't healing, I ended up getting a referral to a surgeon, who did an MRI and found the hairline fracture - I had surgery on Valentine's Day of last year, then had the other ankle done in November of last year, and SCARS! Lovely awesome scars! And the tendons are now run through my ankle bones so they can't flop! Woohoo!

...and I neglected to take more pics of the left ankle. Oops. It's not quite as healed as the right yet, but it was also a much larger incision, a tougher surgery (doc said he ALMOST couldn't tighten it up enough), and I sleep on that side. Eheh. Just imagine a dull red line just above and below the ankle bone, fading to a thin white line the rest of the way up and down.

Baby has been a bit under the weather this week. He actually had to go in and get a bag of IV fluids but he's better now.

As a result, he had some really, really bad diarrhea that got more....um, expansive, as he got better and started taking in more fluids. DH was holding Baby and was disgusted by the fact that he could feel Baby doing his business while sitting in DH's lap. It got worse though. You see, Baby had already thrown up on his shirt, so he was sitting in DH's lap topless. That really bad "business" that Baby was taking care of leaked out the top of his diaper and all over DH's arm. . . . . . DH was eating dinner at the time. DH has a weak stomach.

DH practically threw Baby at me and RAN to the bathroom to scrub his arm and then jumped into the shower. I heard retching noises as I was changing Baby's diaper, and DH said that my enchiladas taste pretty much the same regardless of the direction they're traveling.

I must not have been looking terribly sympathetic because DH asked me if I thought he was overreacting/being a baby. I answered honestly, but had to add the disclaimer that I spend an unreasonable amount of time covered in bodily fluids.

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In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz

They're icky and creepy if you don't like bugs, and they're a real pain if they get established in your house, but hopefully you got rid of most of the little buggers. If you have little silvery dusty-winged moths in your kitchen, though, you need to seal up any grains or grain-based foods you have in airtight containers until you can take care of them. You can get sticky traps that lure them in with pheromones, which is kind of cool!

(On another note, if they were happily nomming on your cats' food, it was probably mostly grain-based, which is not really good for kitties. I'd stick with the duck-based stuff; it's certainly less likely to get little wormies in it!)